Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Signal Watch Watches: Mothra (1961)
Well, of COURSE I watched Mothra (1961). It came on right after Rodan, so I recorded it to my DVR and watched it later.
Uh...
So, I don't know how many Toho Studios Kaiju movies you've watched. I've seen about 10-15% of their output, and I've always liked "the twins", the two mysterious faeries that popped up and sang and seemed to be friends with all the giant monsters on Monster Island. I had never seen the original Mothra movie, but had seen the giant flying bug in other Godzilla films, and not found her without her charms. But after the super rampage that was Rodan, something about this film seemed a bit too tame, and sort of pre-sages the era of movies wherein we'll lose focus from steely-jawed scientists, wise-cracking journalists and other adults in the lead and devolve into an endless sea of kids in bad shorts named "Kenny" as the protagonist of the film.
Uh...
So, I don't know how many Toho Studios Kaiju movies you've watched. I've seen about 10-15% of their output, and I've always liked "the twins", the two mysterious faeries that popped up and sang and seemed to be friends with all the giant monsters on Monster Island. I had never seen the original Mothra movie, but had seen the giant flying bug in other Godzilla films, and not found her without her charms. But after the super rampage that was Rodan, something about this film seemed a bit too tame, and sort of pre-sages the era of movies wherein we'll lose focus from steely-jawed scientists, wise-cracking journalists and other adults in the lead and devolve into an endless sea of kids in bad shorts named "Kenny" as the protagonist of the film.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
A Chronologically Amiss Discussion of Mark Waid's "Irredeemable" and "Incorruptible"
Hey, have I mentioned my enthusiasm for Mark Waid's Irredeemable and Incorruptible? I have? Ad nauseum?
Oh, well.
Both series have drawn to a close in the monthly installment format, but that's not how I've read either comic. Sure, I started with monthlies on Irredeemable, but Boom! met me where I lived and began releasing trades immediately after the conclusion of arcs, something DC and Marvel grew keen to about the same time, but it seemed part of the Boom! DNA from the start of the series.
However, as the series have each drawn to a close, I am still behind. I finally was able to catch up on the narratively driven Irredeemable/ Incorruptible cross-over I saw appearing on the stands for a couple of months, and which I've finally been able to enjoy for myself.
And I do mean "enjoy". The series manage to do something which seems to obvious from even a quick glance, and that's allow Waid's voice to be the only voice guiding the single world shared by both books, and plot out the two books as counter-measures to one another, with one book following a Superman-like hero gone not so much comic book evil as omnicidal, and a stone cold, amoral villain gone so straight he's now the alien walking the earth.
It says much that the world seems more confused by the transformation of villain Max Damage to hero than the impotent inevitability of humanity's destruction at the hands of a hero who turned.
Waid could have told the story of just the Plutonian and that would have been more than enough, but the addition of the story of Max Damage, unbending hero from just a god-awful, horrendous villain (a guy bad enough that his sidekick was an underage girl he flaunted by naming her "Jailbait". I mean, yikes), gives both stories resonance, not just about the lead characters - which it does - but about how we really feel about someone trying to do good, and our expectations of those people. And, frankly, how alien a concept it is to see someone perform acts of selflessness.
Even the power set granted Max Damage (super strength and invulnerability that becomes stronger the longer he stays awake) has a heroic bent to it that just seemed like a minor liability as a criminal. Max has to intentionally remain sleep-deprived for days to operate on a serious scale, staggering around with the power of a god at his fingertips, but almost out of his mind, just looking for a place to lay down, and all the craziness any of us get when we haven't gotten our forty winks. Brilliant stuff.
There's one more collection left for each series. I'll miss it, but I'm glad Waid has had an opportunity to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end that commented and meta-commented, and in the tradition of novelistic storytelling, it's fine if we don't get a second installment or more of the same. I wouldn't say no to more (from Waid), but if we don't return to these characters... thanks for the series.
Oh, well.
Both series have drawn to a close in the monthly installment format, but that's not how I've read either comic. Sure, I started with monthlies on Irredeemable, but Boom! met me where I lived and began releasing trades immediately after the conclusion of arcs, something DC and Marvel grew keen to about the same time, but it seemed part of the Boom! DNA from the start of the series.
However, as the series have each drawn to a close, I am still behind. I finally was able to catch up on the narratively driven Irredeemable/ Incorruptible cross-over I saw appearing on the stands for a couple of months, and which I've finally been able to enjoy for myself.
And I do mean "enjoy". The series manage to do something which seems to obvious from even a quick glance, and that's allow Waid's voice to be the only voice guiding the single world shared by both books, and plot out the two books as counter-measures to one another, with one book following a Superman-like hero gone not so much comic book evil as omnicidal, and a stone cold, amoral villain gone so straight he's now the alien walking the earth.
It says much that the world seems more confused by the transformation of villain Max Damage to hero than the impotent inevitability of humanity's destruction at the hands of a hero who turned.
Waid could have told the story of just the Plutonian and that would have been more than enough, but the addition of the story of Max Damage, unbending hero from just a god-awful, horrendous villain (a guy bad enough that his sidekick was an underage girl he flaunted by naming her "Jailbait". I mean, yikes), gives both stories resonance, not just about the lead characters - which it does - but about how we really feel about someone trying to do good, and our expectations of those people. And, frankly, how alien a concept it is to see someone perform acts of selflessness.
Even the power set granted Max Damage (super strength and invulnerability that becomes stronger the longer he stays awake) has a heroic bent to it that just seemed like a minor liability as a criminal. Max has to intentionally remain sleep-deprived for days to operate on a serious scale, staggering around with the power of a god at his fingertips, but almost out of his mind, just looking for a place to lay down, and all the craziness any of us get when we haven't gotten our forty winks. Brilliant stuff.
There's one more collection left for each series. I'll miss it, but I'm glad Waid has had an opportunity to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end that commented and meta-commented, and in the tradition of novelistic storytelling, it's fine if we don't get a second installment or more of the same. I wouldn't say no to more (from Waid), but if we don't return to these characters... thanks for the series.
Happy Father's Day, Dad!
Happy Father's Day to The Admiral, The Old Man, Pop, Paterfamilias, Lord of the Manor, Founder of the Feast, the Progenitor, Dad.
I shall cut to a scene from a recent dinner party at which a friend was experiencing trouble, and I related an anecdote about my dad and his outlook upon life.
Happy Father's Day, Dad!
I shall cut to a scene from a recent dinner party at which a friend was experiencing trouble, and I related an anecdote about my dad and his outlook upon life.
Happy Father's Day, Dad!
Saturday, June 16, 2012
DC Comics Father's Day Ad (from Comixology)
Ha.
Well, I can't blame Comixology for trying, but...
This was the ad I received in my email today from Comixology.
1. I find the idea that the target market for Comixology is really buying their dad $0.99 digital comics to be a bit disingenuous at best. I mean, The Admiral owns an iPad and I do not (and he's doing very little to remedy my situation, because I think he likes to lord his superior technology over me), but he would probably just be confused with my generosity. So, really, you're talking about DC hoping the guys who have kids old enough to buy things online will jump on Comixology and buy them comics. But DC went way out of their way to alienate all those guys this year (the non 18-25 year old white males), so...
2. Oh, right. Remember when the Flash was Wally West and he had kids and was a father and existed? Buy those, because that storyline really went somewhere.
3. Batman. Father... why daddy? WHY? I WILL AVENGE YOUUUUUU???? (also, Happy Father's Day!)
4. Wonder Woman, made of clay because no men to be daddy's on Paradise Island. Oh, right. The Azzarello stuff? Well, sure. Happy Deity Daddy Day!
5. And Black Lightning. Who somehow hid two teenage daughters from us until they suddenly existed. So, Black Lightning is the late 40's superhero! Man, he keeps in shape.
I kind of think Comixology just wants to move some $0.99 digital comics, but I also think just grabbing some images and overlaying them in Photoshop may not have been the way to go.
Well, I can't blame Comixology for trying, but...
This was the ad I received in my email today from Comixology.
1. I find the idea that the target market for Comixology is really buying their dad $0.99 digital comics to be a bit disingenuous at best. I mean, The Admiral owns an iPad and I do not (and he's doing very little to remedy my situation, because I think he likes to lord his superior technology over me), but he would probably just be confused with my generosity. So, really, you're talking about DC hoping the guys who have kids old enough to buy things online will jump on Comixology and buy them comics. But DC went way out of their way to alienate all those guys this year (the non 18-25 year old white males), so...
2. Oh, right. Remember when the Flash was Wally West and he had kids and was a father and existed? Buy those, because that storyline really went somewhere.
3. Batman. Father... why daddy? WHY? I WILL AVENGE YOUUUUUU???? (also, Happy Father's Day!)
4. Wonder Woman, made of clay because no men to be daddy's on Paradise Island. Oh, right. The Azzarello stuff? Well, sure. Happy Deity Daddy Day!
5. And Black Lightning. Who somehow hid two teenage daughters from us until they suddenly existed. So, Black Lightning is the late 40's superhero! Man, he keeps in shape.
I kind of think Comixology just wants to move some $0.99 digital comics, but I also think just grabbing some images and overlaying them in Photoshop may not have been the way to go.
Movie Watch 2012 - Rodan (1956)
I have no idea why, but when I got home tonight from Boston, I watched almost all of kaiju super fest Rodan from 1956.
The movie attempts to find the same mournful tone as Gojira, but misses by a bit while still sticking a bummer of an ending onto an otherwise pretty spunky movie. Jamie was not a fan of Rodan, either as a movie or a muppet. I thought it had its charms, but Rodan's lack of atomic-fire-breathw as apparently a big red "x" against our flying petaranodon (or however the movie spelled pteranodon).
Rodan!
I also liked their models in this movie. They actually moved WHILE shooting.
The movie attempts to find the same mournful tone as Gojira, but misses by a bit while still sticking a bummer of an ending onto an otherwise pretty spunky movie. Jamie was not a fan of Rodan, either as a movie or a muppet. I thought it had its charms, but Rodan's lack of atomic-fire-breathw as apparently a big red "x" against our flying petaranodon (or however the movie spelled pteranodon).
Rodan!
I also liked their models in this movie. They actually moved WHILE shooting.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
I will not buy Superman products featuring a Superman with a Preposterously Large Head
If you ask Jamie, she'll tell you that I will buy just any old thing with an "S" Shield on it. Cups. Underwear. Towels. Dog bowls. And there's some truth to that. But something I've always steered away from are Superman items that depict Superman, but with a weird-shaped head or a disproportionate head.
Take the upcoming Superman USB drive from Mimobot for example.
NOPE. Not gonna do it.
I suppose that part of it is that Superman really is just a guy with blue eyes and dark hair. Any time you mess with that look, now you're just distending some dude's head, and not in a particularly funny or fun way.
Take the upcoming Superman USB drive from Mimobot for example.
NOPE. Not gonna do it.
I suppose that part of it is that Superman really is just a guy with blue eyes and dark hair. Any time you mess with that look, now you're just distending some dude's head, and not in a particularly funny or fun way.
 |
| if I have to explain why this is right and the USB drive Superman is wrong, we may need to start over from scratch with this whole blogging enterprise |
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Signal Watch Reads: The Jugger by Richard Stark
I've never been a book series guy before, but I guess between the John Carter books and now finishing my sixth Parker novel, I'm a book series guy.
I'm totally in the bag for the Parker books by Richard Stark (aka: Donald Westlake).
The Jugger (1965) picks up finding Parker in small town Nebraska to check on his contact and the closest thing to a friend he's got (not that he's sentimental about it), Joe Sheer. Only to to find that the panicky letters he'd been getting from Sherer were on the money, and by the time he's arrived, Sheer has died rather suddenly.
But since his arrival, local law has been keeping an eye on Parker, and now a twerp from the criminal underground has shown up insisting Parker must be there for some reason other than to say adios to Joe Sheer. And he's just smalltime and dumb enough to think he can play ball with Parker.
I'm totally in the bag for the Parker books by Richard Stark (aka: Donald Westlake).
The Jugger (1965) picks up finding Parker in small town Nebraska to check on his contact and the closest thing to a friend he's got (not that he's sentimental about it), Joe Sheer. Only to to find that the panicky letters he'd been getting from Sherer were on the money, and by the time he's arrived, Sheer has died rather suddenly.
But since his arrival, local law has been keeping an eye on Parker, and now a twerp from the criminal underground has shown up insisting Parker must be there for some reason other than to say adios to Joe Sheer. And he's just smalltime and dumb enough to think he can play ball with Parker.
So far in Quincy...
It's been a fine trip. I flew through JFK yesterday en route to Boston Logan, arrived, ate some food, read, internetted and then went to bed and slept in a bit.
Today the conference started and I presented in the mid-afternoon session. We had lower attendance than I would have liked, but I thought the conversation which occurred was tremendous. Then, at the meet'n'greet cocktail hour had some great conversations.
My biggest problem is that I've been doing this so long and attended so many conferences, I can't always remember where I know people from. That caught me twice tonight.
After the happy hour I met up with Kevin of One Wall Cinema.
Kevin took me to a favorite haunt of his, and it was a really nice night out away from ETDs and library talk. I had a great time, and am a bit bummed that Boston is so far from Austin. Kevin is a good man with whom one can chat. I recommend you try it.
Kevin took me on a quick drive around Quincy, and I saw City Hall, the former home of John Quincy Adams, and the graveyard where John AND John Quincy Adams are buried. I nerded a bit.
I suppose I knew Sam Adams (the beer) was from Boston, but as its one of my favorite beers in Texas, I don't think of it as local to Boston. It is, so I should shut up about that. But I bypassed Sam Adams this evening and tried local favorite Wachusett Blueberry.
It is AWESOME. And they put blueberries in it. I'm not a huge beer drinker, but this was right up my alley.
I am confident I rid my body of many oxidants by consuming a glass of this beer.
In general, I've been having a lovely time, as far as this conference business is concerned. And I am quite fond of the Boston accents of various stripes I've heard around me. Partially because nobody has yelled at me, which will ruin it. On the plus side, nobody has, as of yet, asked how I like them apples or, indeed, any apples at all.
Kevin also convinced me to eat "Buffalo Chicken Nachos". Texans, we cannot control what they do with our local cuisine once it leaves the state, but there are worse ways to see a pile of nachos wind up.
Today the conference started and I presented in the mid-afternoon session. We had lower attendance than I would have liked, but I thought the conversation which occurred was tremendous. Then, at the meet'n'greet cocktail hour had some great conversations.
My biggest problem is that I've been doing this so long and attended so many conferences, I can't always remember where I know people from. That caught me twice tonight.
After the happy hour I met up with Kevin of One Wall Cinema.
 |
| the aforementioned Kevin |
Kevin took me on a quick drive around Quincy, and I saw City Hall, the former home of John Quincy Adams, and the graveyard where John AND John Quincy Adams are buried. I nerded a bit.
I suppose I knew Sam Adams (the beer) was from Boston, but as its one of my favorite beers in Texas, I don't think of it as local to Boston. It is, so I should shut up about that. But I bypassed Sam Adams this evening and tried local favorite Wachusett Blueberry.
It is AWESOME. And they put blueberries in it. I'm not a huge beer drinker, but this was right up my alley.
 |
| Now you can begin your day with Boo-Berry and end it with Blueberry |
In general, I've been having a lovely time, as far as this conference business is concerned. And I am quite fond of the Boston accents of various stripes I've heard around me. Partially because nobody has yelled at me, which will ruin it. On the plus side, nobody has, as of yet, asked how I like them apples or, indeed, any apples at all.
Kevin also convinced me to eat "Buffalo Chicken Nachos". Texans, we cannot control what they do with our local cuisine once it leaves the state, but there are worse ways to see a pile of nachos wind up.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Mad Men Season 5 Ends
Season 5 of Mad Men ended Sunday night. That means only two more seasons to go, which is good. TV shows need to know where they're headed or you run into the X-Files Syndrome.
People talk about smart TV, and then they mention something like Lost that was sort of dumb TV in smart-TV drag. The creators got so caught up in creating loop-de-loops of logic and plotting, they managed to do a lot of hand waving about some sort of spiritual meaning to the proceedings, but by the mid-point of the final season, it was pretty clear that what they meant by spiritual was a non-threatening atmosphere CD from Target.
Mad Men, somehow, is a show you can most certainly watch as a soap opera with people falling in and out of love, having illicit sex, making bad decisions, etc... But it's increasingly a show that's built on its longevity to build a lexicon and a readability that until 15 years ago, was reserved for film and books.
People talk about smart TV, and then they mention something like Lost that was sort of dumb TV in smart-TV drag. The creators got so caught up in creating loop-de-loops of logic and plotting, they managed to do a lot of hand waving about some sort of spiritual meaning to the proceedings, but by the mid-point of the final season, it was pretty clear that what they meant by spiritual was a non-threatening atmosphere CD from Target.
Mad Men, somehow, is a show you can most certainly watch as a soap opera with people falling in and out of love, having illicit sex, making bad decisions, etc... But it's increasingly a show that's built on its longevity to build a lexicon and a readability that until 15 years ago, was reserved for film and books.
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